The Trek
by Wanderlust
Summary: Ron and friends have a little problem with unicorns that turns into a more-than-deadly hike through the Forbidden Forest. I beg all to R& especially R


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Unicorn

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Bong!! Bong!! Bong!! The bell rang throughout the halls of Hogwarts. "This is a drill....this is a drill!"

"Crap!" Ron Weasley complained from the Gryffindor common room. "Why now? Do they SCHEDULE these drills to be when I'm about to win in Exploding Snap?"

"Come off it, Ron," Hermione Granger replied. "It'll be a couple of minutes, then we can play another game."

Harry Potter privately thought that Hermione was glad for the reprieve; usually she beat Ron in the game. The bell continued to toll, almost absentmindedly. The three of them, grumbling all the way, knew the drill. The portrait opened, and the three of them left surrounded by other Gryffindors.

The school had instituted a new policy ever since Voldemort's resurrection. If a Death Eater was within three hundred meters of the school, the bell tower would activate, warning the students and teachers of the danger. All students had to enter the Forbidden Forest and hide among the outer plants and leaves. Many students were not happy about this new policy, nor were parents concerned about the potential dangers of the Forbidden Forest. Ron really hated it, thanks to a close call with giant spiders in their second year.

The students quietly moved to hide among the plants and leaves, as usual. Harry, Ron, and Hermione hid next to a huge sequoia tree, believed to be long extinct by muggles. They were soon joined by Dobby and Winky.

"Harry Potter, sir, Dobby hates these drills!" the house-elf squealed and looked fearfully in to the depths of the Forbidden Forest

"Winky not going to complain. Winky is a good house-elf, sirs and miss!" said his companion.

The bell stopped tolling, signaling the end of the drill. The two scampered off. "House-elves," Ron said grinning.

Suddenly a unicorn appeared, a beautiful one with pearly-white fur, hooves, and horns. The horn was sparkling and the unicorn, looking curiously at the three of them, stamped his foot impatiently. There was a tuft of yellow fur protruding from above his heels. "Wow..." Ron said. "I've never seen one before." He moved closer, and put his hand out. The unicorn took a step towards him, and broke in to a canter. He stopped within three feet of Ron and put his horn forward. Ron reached out to touch it.

"No!" said Hermione in a loud whisper. "Don't touch the horn! It will -" She was cut off by a strange, bluish glow that covered the area. Ron's hand, on the unicorn, turned the same color blue, more intense. The blue began to shape into lightning bolts, dancing over Ron's hand as if powered by another force. Ron, Harry, Hermione, and the unicorn vanished. A bolt of lighting struck the sequoia where the three had been hiding and a cloud of white mist hung over the area. Twenty miles away, on the other side of the Forbidden Forest, an ashen-faced Ron Weasley looked in horror at what was bearing down on him, without even thinking about why he had been teleported there.  
  


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Remorse

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The behemoth - a twelve-foot-tall brown-furred monstrosity with silver claws - looked at the fifteen-year-old Ron Weasley and clacked its claws together. The thing charged, but Ron moved out of the way nimbly, and the behemoth toppled a tree with its claws. Ron pulled out his wand. "Impedimenta!" he yelled, but the spell did nothing. "Stupefy! STUPEFY!" The first time the spell bounced off the behemoth's claws and hit a tree. The next time, when the behemoth raised his hands to block it, it ricocheted off its claws and hit the thing straight in the face. With the sound of a whistling bomb, it toppled over and cracked its skull against a boulder. Sweating profusely, Ron turned around and looked at the lifeless bodies of his two best friends. Without touching them he knew they were dead. He sat on the recently deceased tree and put his face in his hands. He would never be able to forgive himself as long as he lived. Hermione - beautiful Hermione - had told him not to do it, but he had done it anyway. He cried. He sat there, and cried, even when the behemoth stirred, he continued to.

Ron decided it was his duty to return to Hogwarts with his two best friends. Gingerly picking up Hermione's cold hand, slightly surprised that rigor mortis had set in already, he maneuvered the hand so it was right in front of his face, and he kissed it, passionately, having wanted do that for months on end. Hermione was no sleeping beauty, and did not wake up. Instead a cold filament of saliva remained on her hand. But he didn't want to think about his lost love. He looked ahead, into the gloomy darkness of the forest, and behind, to the high grass that swayed with the breeze, and a watering hole where a deer was drinking silently and peacefully. Dark shapes moved ahead in the forest, black and unforgiving. Ron took a step towards the watering hole, away from the direction of Hogwarts, and then conjured two floating stretchers, placed Harry and Hermione on top of them, and turned around to move towards the forest.  
  


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Journey

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Ronald Weasley knew what he faced ahead. The Forbidden Forest was a dark, scary place, with many rarely-seen creatures that were the topics of muggle legends. Ron was sure he saw a roc flying over the Forest once before, and ogres patrolled it as well. A dragon utopia happened to be nearby as well, and troglodytes roam in the caves. Ron knew what was coming and was grimly prepared, driven forward by a force of will and heroic loyalty to his friends. He picked his way through the forest, going at an incredibly slow rate, for two days, eating some of the meat of the deer from the watering hole. He sat down on a charred stump and looked up. All he saw was a dull, dark green color. He could hardly tell whether it was daytime or nighttime. He heard a low growl, probably from some wolf in the forest. He turned to his stretchers and continued to push on. Ron was in the deepest depths of the forest and knew he had to be circumspect. A large black shadow was approaching behind him. He put the stretchers behind a rock to safeguard them, and turned around and yelled to scare the beast.

It had the opposite effect. A twenty-foot-tall green dragon stepped out, and looked at the terrified fifth year quizzically, as if confused over how so small a creature could make so large a noise. Ron quickly thought, and decided to scare the dragon away rather than fight it. "Perterritus!"he whispered; the Terror spell. The dragon blinked once, overwhelmed with fear, but seemed to gain control of itself and reared back his head. Bright yellow fire filled the area where the student had been a second ago. Hiding behind a tree, Ron thought quickly, wondering why the dragon hadn't heard his pounding heart. "Nifex," he muttered, and watched has his round wand tip turned sharp as a razor. Looking around the tree, he saw the dragon's tail moving back and forth and its stomach, his target, was right past the swaying green tail. Extinguish the fire in its belly and you extinguish the dragon, Hagrid had once told him. Of course, his advice was meant to tell Ron how to keep a dragon alive, not kill one, but the advice was very helpful. Ron silently moved underneath the dark green scales, making sure not to touch one. The dragon, sensing movement, turned the tree he had hidden behind to smoldering ash. Ron jabbed his wand in to the dragon's stomach like a small spear, and rolled away to avoid the fire that spewed from the dragon's mouth. The bright green scales on the dragon turned a bit darker, and its red nostrils turned a bit lighter. Fire burned through every area around the dragon, and smoke was billowing up from burning trees and logs as the dragon rampaged in its pain. Fixing his wand and wiping the blood off of it on to a tree, he turned around and said an incantation. Water spewed from his wand like a fire hose. He aimed the flow at the injured dragon, hoping some drops would enter his stomach and extinguish the flame. The scales of the dragon turned bone-white, and its nostrils that same color. It fell to the ground hard, shaking it like an earthquake had hit the area.

Ron collapsed, exhausted, and fell asleep. Rain began to drip through the leaves of the canopy, putting out some of the forest fires that started and dropping desperately needed water on Ron. The dragon turned black and dissolved where the rain hit it. The dead forms of Harry and Hermione were now lying on the ground, their stretchers vaporized in the dragon's rampage, but the bodies remarkably untouched.  
  


Ron awoke, eighteen hours later, to the sound of a chirping phoenix flying overhead. Most of the fire had been extinguished in the rain, leaving only a few warm twigs and some coals by a boulder. A boulder!! Ron immediately thought the worst. Running to the rock, with his left leg prickling and asleep, he hopped on top to see the untouched bodies of his love and best friends lying next to the pile of ash-white charcoal that was all that remained of the stretchers. Ron was more than slightly amazed at that fact. He touched Hermione's face, to find it still cold. "Damn," he whispered. 

Still puzzled, Ron conjured new stretchers for the two of them. Still cautious, he looked around and saw nothing behind him but a tree. He thought that was odd, too, considering the dragon had burned most of the trees in the area. Putting Harry and Hermione on the stretchers, he set off again.

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Tree

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Was that footsteps? He turned around. A similar-looking tree was behind him yet again. Ron shook his head and was telling himself he was paranoid when something tapped him on the shoulder. "Ack!" He pulled out his wand. Nothing but the tree. This time Ron hit himself in the head and pressed on.

More footsteps. He turned around instead. The same tree was there, possibly a mile from where he first saw it. Now the fifth year was getting suspicious and kicked the tree, and was deciding whether to burn it or not when the tree said "Ow!"

"What the hell are you?" Ron asked the tree, dumbfounded.

"Me? I'm a dendroid."

"A dendroid! What are you doing in the Forbidden Forest?"

"It's hard to explain." The tree waved its branches for emphasis. Ron couldn't see where his mouth was. "Let's put it this way....I got lost."

"Got lost? From where?"

"The town of Rr'are."

"How did you get lost?"

"I'm an explorer. But I've given up the profession. Too dangerous. Anyway, after I saw you battle that dragon, I decided it would be a good idea to stick with you."

"Wonderful."

The tree stuck out a branch. "I'm Diorr'rek."

"Ronald Weasley." He shook the branch, as if it were a sharp and prickly hand.

"So what you doing here, Ronald?"

"Call me Ron. And don't ask."

"Who the two people on the stretchers?" The tree bent down and looked at them, then recoiled. "Tarra! They dead!"

"Tarra?"

"The god of life."

"Ah," said Ron. "Can we walk? I'm in sort of a hurry. I really don't like this place."

"Likewise. Where you going?"

"Hogwarts."

"Reqirr! Hogwarts is near here?"

"Reqirr is the god of education?"

"Close. The god of children."

"Oh. Yes, Hogwarts is near here. About ten miles that way." He pointed.

Diorr'rek stared. "Is there any sunlight that way?"

"I have no idea. But there is sunlight around Hogwarts."

"I need to photosynthesize," the dendroid complained. "If there's no sunlight, I'll die."

"Can't help you there, mate." Ron decided he liked this creature. He hadn't talked to anyone within the last four days.

"Just curious...but....why don't you ever use the word 'are?'"

"Sacred word. We cannot use it."

The two continued to chat as they walked.  
  


Ron had found a rock formation where the rock curved in to a little sideways bowl, making it the perfect place to sleep for the night. The rock overhanging above seemed very stable, so there was little chance of it falling down on him.

"Diorr'rek, how do you sleep?"

"Me? I don't. I just dig my roots in to the ground, absorb water, unfurl my leaves, you know, the usual."

"Usual. Right. Well, I'm going to turn in; watch over Harry and Hermione. He yawned and sat down under the alcove. Soon, everything turned dark with the lull of sleep.  
  


"Ron! Ron!! Wake up, wake up!"

"Whah? Huh? What's going on?"

"The ground!"

Ron looked down. Spiders were crawling all over it. He jumped up. A large hole had appeared in the ground, expanding as dirt fell through its depths. The hole soon spread like a disease under Ron's tattered clothes, and he fell through the expanding hole as the ground gave out from under him. He landed in sticky mud. Two meters above him, the hole in the ground radiated light like a miniature sun. He looked around and saw only blackness.

A rumbling sound overcame the fifth-year's thoughts. Behind him, a large boulder came rolling, filling the tunnel. He looked up and saw he couldn't escape that way. Then all went black.  
  


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Underground

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Ronald Weasley's eyes adjusted soon after he woke up, and he saw a tree in front of him. Quickly recalling the events before he had gone out like a light, he was quite surprised that trees had suddenly decided to start growing underground.

"Ron? You back in our world?"

"Huh? Diorr'rek?"

"Know any other dendroids? I need your help. My branches about to snap; I've been trying to keep this from crushing you."

"Right. Is the hole blocked?"

"Sorry."

"Damn! Um, hold on....Accio Potter, Granger, Stretchers!"

"What in the freezing depths of k'raiy?"

"What in the fiery depths of hell is k'raiy?"

The dendroid looked at him. "Compare our statements and get back to me," he said dryly. "And now that your friends are with you, can we get out of here?"

"K'raiy is your hell."

"No, it's our traveling carnival. Move your little human a-"

"You get sarcastic when you're angry." The stretchers, with a dead Hermione and Harry each, had burrowed through the ground thanks to the Summoning Charm. Diorr'rek propped up the boulder with a log and shivered. The two ran, stretchers behind them, trying to ignore the ominous crack that signaled the log breaking, through the dark and dirty underground tunnel. They moved through a complicated series of underground caverns, trying to evade the rapidly rolling boulder.

Completely lost, with the rolling boulder far behind him, Ron stopped, heavily perspiring, not able to see anything out of the beam of his lumosed wand.

"How will we ever find our way out o-" Ron stopped in his tracks as he heard a splashing sound, like little footsteps.

"Did you -"

"Shhh!!" Ron interrupted Diorr'rek's question. Of course he had heard it. He shined his wand in the direction. A small, three-foot green thing was illuminated in the darkness. The semispherical head was all olive green except for the large, emotionless black eyes. The thing was carrying a spear and was lighter green down its torso and legs. Its tiny hands had no opposable thumbs and they were blocking the thing's huge eyes from the harsh light uncommon in the caves.

It squawked.

From the shadows a huge horde of these things emerged in a cacophony of splashing. Diorr'rek gulped, looked at Ron and crossed himself. He then collapsed in to a pile of small firewood logs.

"Thanks a lot, Diorr'rek," Ron whispered. He picked up the pile of logs and shifted his wand to his right hand.

The green things joined in to huge ranks. They turned their spears straight towards Ron, like a rank of military troops. And charged.

Ron dispatched two of the rank of about fifty with a couple of well-placed impedimentas. More were stunned. But still forty remained. They continued to charge. Ron took a deep breath, pointed his wand at one of them, and cast a fireball. The miniature inferno, centered around a single enemy, wiped out half of them. The bright light lit up the network of caverns like a small sun, bathing them in a harsh yellow. The spear-carrying creatures fled from the heat as another one was smothered in flames. Ron took a deep breath and turned away from the carnage. The constant squawking of the things roared in Ron's ears, telling him he had just killed a semi-intelligent creature. An awful stench emanated from the crackling bodies, as the entire scene overwhelmed Ron. His knees went weak and he leaned against the cave walls. Ron's stomach turned over. A small tunnel, in the opposite direction of the firewall, was Ron's only hope of escape.

Ron staggered through the catacombs, his wand unsteady, Diorr'rek's logs in his weak hands. The fifth year walked along and looked left and right. He looked right ans was shocked at what he saw.

Natural light. Natural light. A remarkable blessing; Ron had thought he would never leave the caves. Ron staggered up out of the caves. What he saw stunned him. He screamed with every ounce of his fiber and being, stretchers beside him, logs on the ground. One word. A significant word. 

Help.  
  


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Semi-Normality

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The castle of Hogwarts stood proud and strong over the lake. Inside the ninth window from the left on the fifth floor, a tired Weasley was asleep in a bed. A lady known as Madam Pomfrey to the castle students stood by that bed, tending Ron's wounds with a special salve. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, still on the broken and battered stretchers, were beside him. And the headmaster of that school was anxiously awaiting Ron's return to consciousness.

"The rogue band of the unicorn," muttered Albus Dumbledore. "It is a pity they ever existed. Beautiful, they are. But when you touch them..."

"Yes," Minerva McGonagall replied. "Yes, indeed. One would think that Ron knew of its effects. Why, almost every wizard-born student knows the story. When you touch that unicorn, everyone within a two-meter radius is frozen in stasis, their minds still working and alive. You are transported miles away. We are quite lucky Ron carried the other two back, considering he didn't know of this. When he wakes up, hopefully he will tell us the area they were frozen in, only when they are in that area can they be unfrozen."

"If he hadn't screamed for help after he got out of the cave, we may never have realized he was anywhere nearby. We should be thankful he did these little things and had no idea about it. Very strange."

"Very strange indeed. Did you get a response from that dendroid that fainted in to the logs?"

"Why, yes, funny you should ask. He decided to replace Professor Sprout in Herbology. It's also odd that he came along a day after she had left. I hope some foul play is not at work here, and if there is, it will be very dangerous."  
  


Ronald Weasley recovered quickly and immediately pointed out the area. Hermione celebrated her return to consciousness with a big kiss to Ron back, and Harry's first words were, "What, no kiss for me?"

  
  


AN: Review!!! Flames!!! Love notes!!! Compliments!!! Criticisms!!! Totally unrelated ANYTHINGS!!!!! I'd kill for a lot of reviews!!!! I hate stories with apathetic reactions. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!

PS: If part of this looks slightly screwed up, blame WordPerfect's and Internet Explorer's mutual hate for each other.


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